While I have been reading up on Buttermilk biscuits I discovered there are many different ways to make biscuits. Should you use butter versus shortening, all-purpose flour vs White Lily flour, different opinions on how to handle the dough, cutting vs dropping the dough and if you choose to cut the dough, how to cut. Not to mention the wide range in baking temperatures. Who knew biscuits were so controversial. In any case, I do know that it is important not to over-mix and to handle the dough as little as possible. Also using cold butter clumps makes sense to me since that is the way you get the wonderful flakiness in Wienerbrød. In this particular method I used here, I cut the dough ball in half and placed one half on top of the other, reshaped into ball and repeated this process 3 times. Did it make a big difference? I’m not really sure, but it didn’t hurt the dough. And so in conclusion, I love these Buttermilk biscuits. They are soft and buttery and flaky with a slight crunch to the bottom, which I like. There is nothing better than homemade, right-out-of-the-oven flaky Buttermilk biscuits!

Use a box grater to grate cold butter, place grated butter in freezer while you prepare dry ingredients.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Place grated butter into flour. Using a pastry blender cut butter into pea size pieces. Add cold buttermilk, using a wooden spoon stir mixture just until dough comes together, do not overmix. Place dough onto a floured surface, gently pat dough into a ball. Cut dough ball into half, place one half on top of the other and gently press into a ball again. Repeat cutting the dough ball and placing one half on top of the other, shaping into a ball 3 more times.

Pumpkin🎃 It wouldn’t be Fall without a pumpkin recipe. These Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns were soft and flavorful and super delicious served right out of the oven. No need to say that they were a huge hit here in our house.

Making Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

The dough was a little sticky in the beginning, but after a quick kneading and adding in a little more flour, the dough was smooth as butter to work with. Once it came time to slicing the dough, it would get smooched by the knife, but no worries, just gently press it round again and place it onto your baking dish.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns (makes 28 servings)

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 1/2 cup milk (12 fl oz or 3 1/2 dl)

1/2 cup sugar (100 g)

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp or 8 g)

1 cup pumpkin puree (250 g)

1/2 cup vegetable oil (4 fl oz or 1 dl)

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (610 g)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp salt

Remonce Filling:

5.3 oz butter (150 g)

8.8 oz dark brown sugar (250 g)

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2.6 oz marzipan, grated (75 g)

Icing:

7 oz confectioners sugar (200 g)

2-3 tablespoons cold water

Directions:

Line baking sheet with parchment paper, or if you prefer, grease a baking dish with butter and set aside.

Making the dough: Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt, set aside.Pour milk and sugar into a large saucepan and heat until between 100-110 degrees F (37-43 degrees C). Sprinkle yeast over milk and let sit for 10 minutes. Add pumpkin and oil, stir to combine. Pour liquid into bowl of stand-mixer and on low speed add dry ingredients in increments. Mix only until combined, dough will be sticky. Place dough into a bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Place bowl in a warm location and allow to rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)

Making the fillling: Melt butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and marzipan in a small saucepan, stir to combine.

Making the rolls: When dough has doubled in size, sprinkle work surface generously with flour. Give dough a quick kneading adding more flour just until dough is no longer sticky. Roll dough out to approximately 16 by 26 inches. Spread filling out over dough. Starting at the longest length, roll dough into a log ending with seam side down. Slice dough into 3/4 to 1 inch (2 to 2.5 cm) slices and place them on baking sheet or into baking dish. Cover with tea towel and allow to rise for another 20-30 minutes. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

Add water in small increments to confectioners sugar, stir to combine. Sprinkle icing over hot rolls and serve warm. Enjoy!

My sister Jonna is the one who brought this wonderful recipe to my attention. She shared pictures of her finished Gulerodsbrud on Facebook and it sounded and looked so good that I just had to try the recipe right away. And let me tell you, these rolls did not disappoint. Taste one of these rolls straight out of the oven, as is, it’s a little piece of heaven. Let them cool and you can serve them with butter, or my favorite way, with some ham and prosciutto.

Making Gulerodsbrud

Not only are these buns now one of my favorites but making them is quite an adventure. I have never encountered a process like this and it was a lot of fun. First you make your dough, it’s firm and elastic. Then you make a well in the center and add eggs, sunflower seeds and grated carrots. Wrap it up like a nice little present and then you chop up the dough until it’s in small pieces. Now it’s a real sticky mess and you make little piles of dough on your baking sheets, bake and voila…you have super soft, delicious rolls with a slight thew from the sunflower seeds. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Chop dough into small pieces

Gulerodsbrud, makes 12-15 buns

Ingredients:

5 1/2 dl water (18.3 fluid oz)

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (or 50 g cake/fresh yeast)

1 kg all-purpose flour (2 lb 3 oz or 35 oz)

75 g sugar (2.6 oz)

15 g salt (0.5 oz)

75 g butter (2.6 oz), at room temperature

2 eggs

150 g sunflower seeds (5.3 oz)

4 grated carrots (I got 230 g or 8 oz)

Directions:

Sprinkle yeast over warm water (100-110 degrees F) and let sit for 10-15 minutes. In your stand-mixer, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add water and yeast to flour and mix to combine, add butter and continue to mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in a bowl and cover with a clean, dry tea towel. Allow dough to rise for one hour.

Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Pour dough out onto your work surface and give a quick knead to deflate. Make a deep well in the center and place the eggs, sunflower seeds and grated carrots into the well. Pull outer edges of dough over the center and close like a big ball. Using a large knife or a dough scraper, cut the dough and filling into pieces. Continue to scrape the spilled eggs, seeds and carrots back into the dough and continue to cut up the dough until the dough is cut into small pieces. At this point the dough is a pretty messy affair. Take handfuls of the sticky dough and place onto the baking sheets. Let the piles of dough rise for one hour (they will not rise much).

Fastelavn (Shrovetide) is right around the corner in Denmark and so this time of year you see these wonderful fresh-baked filled rolls everywhere. I have posted about the Danish Fastelavn tradition before but I think the Fastelavnsboller is totally worth revisiting, especially since they are one of my favorite Danish treats. 🙂 If your curious to learn more about this fun tradition for the children check out my previous post on Fastelavnsboller here.

Fastelavnsboller

These particular Fastelavnsboller are lighter in texture than my previous recipe. The dough is soft and elastic and very easy to work with. Also there is no rolling out the dough. Simply just divide the dough into smaller portions, roll in your hands, then flatten and fill. Easy peasy! I choose to do several different fillings. I made a delicious kagecreme (custard) and I also used seedless raspberry jam and Nutella.

Heat the milk to between 100-110 degrees F (37-43 degrees C) and sprinkle active dry yeast over the warm milk, let sit for 10 minutes. I do this in the bowl of my stand mixer. Melt butter and add cream to butter, set aside. To the yeast mixture add sugar, salt, cardamom, vanilla sugar and butter/cream mixture. With the dough hook in place start mixing on medium-low adding the flour in increments. Mix until a ball of dough forms. Place dough in a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel and place bowl in a warm draft free area. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour or until double in size.

Meanwhile make the Kagecreme (custard), if using. Mix together the creme and milk, pour into a saucepan, holding back 1/4 cup of the liquid. Add the cornstarch to the 1/4 cup liquid and stir to combine, set aside. Add sugar, eggs, seeds from vanilla bean + vanilla bean pods. Over medium low heat, whisking frequently, add the remaining 1/4 cup cornstarch liquid mixture. Continue to whisk until liquid starts to thicken and simmer. Remove from heat, discard vanilla bean pods and place in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard to prevent skin from forming. Place in refrigerator to cool

Back to the dough. Cover two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Beat egg for the egg wash and set aside. Pour dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Briefly knead the dough. Cut the dough into 12 equal portions. Using your hands, roll first piece of dough into a ball, place on work surface and flatten with the palm of your hand spreading it into a 5 inch (13 centimeter) circle. Place filling of your choice onto circle of dough. Brush the edge of circle with egg wash to act as a glue. Fold four edges up to the center and press to seal all edges, letting the air inside escape. Brush a little more egg wash over the seam, turn the dough ball over, tuck under all edges and place on baking sheet with seam side down. Repeat with remaining dough pieces.

Sliders seem to be a very popular item on todays restaurant menus. They are often served as an appetizer but can certainly go over for lunch or as a light dinner. These fashionable little mini foods can be made with a variety of ingredients like oysters, pulled pork, burgers of all kinds, as a sandwich or with meatballs and….drumroll please….as mini crab cakes. I had been craving these little guys for a while and when Joe suggested we get some seafood from our local market I knew just what it was going to be. Let me tell you, these crab cake sliders are really delicious and if you make the sauce ahead of time the flavors in the sauce intensifies very nicely.

Ingredients:

Crab Cakes:

1 lb crab meat

7 saltine crackers, crumbled

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp gray poupon mustard

1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp old bay

1/2 tsp salt

oil for frying

Horseradish Tartar Sauce:

3 tbsp mayonnaise

2 tbsp sweet relish

1/4 – 1/2 tsp horseradish (depending on your taste)

King’s Hawaiian rolls

Directions:

Start by making Tartar Horseradish Sauce by mixing together mayonnaise, relish and horseradish in a small dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Beat egg, set aside.Crumble saltine crackers, set aside. Using your clean hands, gently inspect crab meat for shells and place in a bowl. Add egg, mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, old bay, salt and crackers. Gently mix all ingredients together and form into small 2 inch patties.

Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400 degrees F. Add oil to pan and heat to medium high heat. Brown patties on both sides, remove from pan and place on baking sheet lined with foil. Finish cooking in oven or toaster oven for 10 minutes. Add rolls to oven the last 1-2 minutes of cooking time to heat through.